Abstract

In this paper we extend M. Lyubich’s recent results on the global hyperbolicity of renormalization of quadratic-like germs to the space of $C^r$ unimodal maps with quadratic critical point. We show that in this space the bounded-type limit sets of the renormalization operator have an invariant hyperbolic structure provided $r \ge 2+\alpha$ with $\alpha$ close to one. As an intermediate step between Lyubich’s results and ours, we prove that the renormalization operator is hyperbolic in a Banach space of real analytic maps. We construct the local stable manifolds and prove that they form a continuous lamination whose leaves are $C^1$ codimension one, Banach submanifolds of the ambient space, and whose holonomy is $C^{1+\beta}$ for some $\beta>0$. We also prove that the global stable sets are $C^1$ immersed (codimension one) submanifolds as well, provided $r \ge 3+\alpha$ with $\alpha$ close to one. As a corollary, we deduce that in generic, one-parameter families of $C^r$ unimodal maps, the set of parameters corresponding to infinitely renormalizable maps of bounded combinatorial type is a Cantor set with Hausdorff dimension less than one.